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TORONTO — A large dose of reality was brought to the Toronto Maple Leafs' home opener at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night.
The bearers were the Montreal Canadiens, who quickly doused the good feelings generated by the traditional opening-night visit by the 48th Highlanders marching band and a salute to the medallists from the Canadian Summer Olympics team.
The Canadiens reminded one and all that the Leafs may have started their NHL season by upsetting the Detroit Red Wings in their own building but they are still a team that has a long way to go in its rebuilding project.
By the end of a very long night for the young Leafs, the Canadiens rolled up a 6-1 laugher, thanks to their explosive power play. The Leafs now have to pull themselves together for a Thanksgiving Day visit from the St. Louis Blues.
Toronto Maple Leafs forward Dominic Moore takes a hit from Montreal Canadiens forward Guillaume Latendresse during the first period of their game in Toronto. (Fred Thornhill/Reuters)
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- Detroit Red Wings
- Montreal Canadiens
- Nik Antropov
- Jason Blake
- Roman Hamrlik
- Curtis Joseph
- Saku Koivu
- Sergei Kostitsyn
- Alexei Kovalev
- Guillaume Latendresse
- Luke Schenn
- Alex Tanguay
- Vesa Toskala
The Canadiens took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Roman Hamrlik and Alexei Kovalev and then buried the Leafs in the second with three power-play goals in less than six minutes.
"I think in the first half of the first period we had some quality chances," Leafs defenceman Pavel Kubina said. "But after that, we gave up the first and second goals and didn't have a good fore-check. Then we made some bad mistakes in our own zone."
Last season, the Canadiens' power play led the NHL with a 24.1-per-cent success rate, while the Leafs were 29th in penalty killing. When the Leafs started taking penalties in the second period, the result was inevitable. The Canadiens finished the night 3-for-8 on the power play.
"I don't know how many penalties we ended up taking," Kubina said. "But it was too many because [the Canadiens] have a great power play."
It was an embarrassing stretch for the Leaf defence, which was helpless on almost all of the goals. Luke Schenn, the Leafs' prize 18-year-old rookie, did not have the sort of home debut you would want to put in a scrapbook. A number of his miscues wound up on Canadiens' sticks, although he was fortunate enough to be on the ice for just one Montreal goal.
The beneficiaries of the Leafs' defensive largesse were Canadiens wingers Sergei Kostitsyn and Guillaume Latendresse. Kostitsyn scored two of those three power-play goals in the second period and had an assist while Latendresse had a goal and two assists. Alex Tanguay had the other power-play goal, to go along with three assists.
Even though it was the second of back-to-back road games for the Canadiens, they looked fresh and much too quick for the Maple Leafs, who had been basking in the glow of their upset of the defending Stanley Cup champions.
The speed showed in the Canadiens' transition game, especially in their first goal of the game, which came as a counterattack to a Leafs rush. When the Toronto rush stalled, the Canadiens quickly started the puck moving the other way.
Saku Koivu carried the puck into the Leaf zone and started a nifty three-way pass play when he dropped the puck for Latendresse on the right side. Latendresse saw Hamrlik jump into the rush from his defence spot on the left side, so he fired the puck across the ice and the defenceman put a one-time shot between the pads of Leaf goaltender Vesa Toskala.
"I don't know if it was home night jitters or what," Leafs head coach Ron Wilson said. "We weren't as fast as we were the other night.
"We had to be as ready as we were the other night in Detroit and we weren't."
Toskala was not at fault for this loss, although he was not quite as sharp as he was in the win over the Red Wings two nights earlier. After he allowed six goals on 23 shots, Curtis Joseph was sent in to start the third period. He gave the 19,370 fans something to cheer by stopping Sergei Kostitsyn and Kovalev on breakaways.
The Leafs ended Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak's hopes for a shutout at 11:02 of the second period with a power-play goal of their own. Jason Blake knocked in a loose puck for his first goal of the season. However, Latendresse scored 22 seconds later to remind the Leafs they were still in a blowout.
Nik Antropov thought he scored for the Leafs on a strange sequence during a power play at 1:27 of the third period but the video judge ruled otherwise. Antropov's backhand shot hit the post, bounced straight back at him, hit his upper arm and bounced into the net. But the replay official ruled Antropov directed the puck into the net with his arm and the goal was disallowed.
